Systems and methods for providing a direct marketing campaign planning environment

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of system are disclosed in which selection strategies for a direct marketing campaign that identify consumers from a credit bureau or other consumer database can be planned, tested, and/or refined on a stable subset of the credit database. In some embodiments, once refined, consumer selection criteria may be used to execute the direct marketing campaign on the full consumer/credit database, which is preferably updated approximately twice weekly. In one preferred embodiment, the data for the test database represents a random sampling of approximately 10% of the full database and the sampling is regenerated approximately weekly in order to provide a stable set of data on which campaign developers may test their campaign. For each consumer in the sampling, the environment may allow a client to access and use both attributes calculated by the credit bureau and proprietary attributes and data owned by the client. The system allows for a plurality of clients to use the system substantially simultaneously while protecting the privacy and integrity of the client&#39;s proprietary data and results.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.60/887,521, filed Jan. 31, 2007, and entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORPROVIDING A DIRECT MARKETING CAMPAIGN PLANNING ENVIRONMENT, the entirecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entiretyherein and should be considered a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The disclosure relates to database testing environments, and, inparticular, to the creation of a sample consumer information databaseenvironment for the testing and refining of direct marketing campaignsbased on credit-related and/or non-credit-related data.

2. Description of the Related Art

Various business entities, including credit providers, perform directmarketing campaigns aimed at selected consumers who are identified, atleast in part, based on data available from credit bureaus. In order toimprove the cost-effectiveness of such campaigns, careful planning ofthe selection criteria for identifying the consumers to be targeted isdesired. Refinement of the selection criteria often takes place bytesting a proposed set of criteria on the database of credit bureauconsumer information, or on a subset of the database, and analyzing theresulting set of consumers identified using the criteria.

Typically, marketers are trying to identify consumers with a desired setof characteristics. Effective refinement of the selection criteria isdependent, at least in part, upon accuracy and stability of the testdatabase set upon which the testing is run, especially since currentlegislation regarding the use of consumer credit data for advertisingpurposes requires in some cases that marketers commit to making a firmoffer of credit to consumers who are contacted. In other types of directmarketing campaigns, rather than making a firm offer of credit, themarketers may issue an “invitation to apply” (known as an ITA). Planningand execution for ITA campaigns may be restricted by law from usingcredit-related data. Marketers for firm offers of credit, ITA's, andother direct marketing campaigns are very interested in maximizing thesuccess of their direct marketing campaigns by careful selection ofconsumers to be contacted.

SUMMARY

Due to the importance of direct marketing campaigns, it would bebeneficial to improve the manner in which business entities, ormarketers working on their behalf, can test and refine their directmarketing campaigns. Embodiments of the present invention allow businessentities, referred to for purposes of this disclosure as “clients,” todirectly access, without intervention of an intermediary, a “partialsnapshot” of a very up-to-date credit bureau or other consumer databasein order to test and refine direct marketing campaign selection criteriafor campaigns that they intend to run on the full credit bureau databasein order to identify targets for a direct marketing campaign. Thesnapshot preferably comprises data that has been very recently updatedand provides for the inclusion of a client's proprietary data andattribute definitions.

Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein disclose acomputer database environment in which selection of consumers to betargeted by a direct marketing campaign can be planned, tested, andrefined on a subset of a credit database. The subset of the creditdatabase provides data that is both up-to-date and stable. In someembodiments, once refined, the selection of consumers to target for thedirect marketing campaign may be carried out on the full creditdatabase, which is preferably updated approximately twice weekly. In onepreferred embodiment, the data for the test database represents a randomsampling of approximately 10% of a full credit bureau database, whichmay include both credit and/or non-credit data. In one preferredembodiment, the full credit database is updated approximately twiceweekly, and the 10% snapshot is updated only approximately once weekly.In some embodiments, the snapshot is updated less frequently than thefull credit database. This provides a stable test environment in whichthe client can rely on the ability to use one static set of data for atleast one week while the client refines the campaign selectionstrategies. Thus, changes in performance of various test runs within agiven week can be attributed with confidence to associated changes inunderlying selection strategy. In other embodiments, the test databasecomprises a different percentage of the full credit bureau database.Furthermore, the test database may be updated at a differentadvantageous frequency, such as once every two weeks, once every threeweeks, once a month, and/or the like.

An embodiment of a system for planning and executing a direct marketingcampaign is described. The system includes: a database of consumercredit information comprising records with information about a pluralityof consumers; a copy of a subset of the consumer credit information fromthe database; and a client testing interface that allows a plurality ofclients to access the copy of the subset and to individually run one ormore tests of prospect selection criteria using the copy of the subsetin order to identify a desired set of prospect selection criteria. Thesystem further comprises a campaign interface that is configured toextract consumer information from the database, based, at least in part,on the desired set of prospect selection criteria for use by at leastone of the plurality of clients in a direct marketing campaign.

Other embodiments of the system are described which include at least oneof the following characteristics: the database of consumer creditinformation is updated twice weekly; the subset of the consumer creditinformation from the database comprises information from 10% of theconsumer records in the database; and/or the copy of the subset of thedatabase is updated weekly. In one embodiment of the system, the clienttesting interface further allows a client to use proprietary data thatthe client owns and that is associated with the subset of consumercredit information in running the one or more tests of the prospectselection criteria.

Embodiments of method are described for generating and maintaining atest environment for identifying desired prospect selection criteria fora direct marketing campaign. The method includes: identifying a samplingof records from a consumer credit data warehouse; calculating a set ofgeneric attributes associated with the records included in the sample;cleansing the set of generic attributes of unwanted attributes; andloading the cleansed set of generic attributes into a test environment.The method further includes, for each of a plurality of clients:calculating, cleansing, and loading into the test environmentclient-proprietary attributes and client-proprietary data provided bythe client that is associated with the records in the sample; andproviding the client with access to the generic attributes and to theclient-proprietary attributes and data provided by the client in thetest environment. The method further includes determining when alifespan associated with the test environment is completed, and, whenthe lifespan associated with the test environment is completed,rebuilding the test environment, based at least in part on a newsampling of records from the consumer credit data warehouse.

Embodiments of a method are described for using a sample databaseenvironment to test and use selection criteria for a direct marketingcampaign on behalf of a client. The method includes: generating a sampledatabase with a specified lifespan from a database of consumerinformation about a population of consumers, such that the sampledatabase includes data from a portion of a set of consumer records inthe database of consumer information; accepting from a client a proposedset of selection criteria for testing; running a test campaign on thesample database using the proposed set of selection criteria; andproviding the test campaign results to the client for analysis. Themethod further includes: repeating the accepting, the running, and theproviding with a modified proposed set of selection criteria receivedfrom the client until the client indicates it is satisfied with a set ofselection criteria or until the lifespan of the sample database iscomplete; and using the set of selection criteria that satisfies theclient to identify a subset of consumers from the database of consumerinformation for use in a direct marketing campaign.

Embodiments of a computer-readable medium are described, such that thecomputer-readable medium has stored thereon executable instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform amethod for testing and executing a direct marketing campaign. The methodincludes: generating a sample database from a database of creditinformation about a population of consumers; accepting from a client aproposed set of selection criteria for testing; running a test campaignon the sample database using the proposed set of selection criteria; andproviding the test campaign results to the client for analysis. Themethod also includes: repeating the accepting, the running, and theproviding with a modified proposed set of selection criteria until theclient indicates it is satisfied with a set of selection criteria; andusing the set of selection criteria to identify a subset of consumersfrom database of credit information for use in a direct marketingcampaign.

An embodiment of a system for testing a proposed direct marketingcampaign is described. The system can include a client testing interfaceconfigured to access a sample database of depersonalized creditinformation including records with information about a plurality ofconsumers. The client testing interface can further be configured toindividually run one or more tests of prospect selection criteria usingthe sample database.

In some embodiments, a system for testing and executing a directmarketing campaign is provided. The system can include a client testinginterface configured to access a sample database of depersonalizedcredit information including records with information about a pluralityof consumers. The client testing interface can further be configured toindividually run one or more tests of prospect selection criteria usingthe sample database. The system can further include a campaign interfacefor use in executing a direct marketing campaign, configured to requestthat a set of selection criteria be used to identify information from aconsumer data warehouse about a set of consumers.

In some embodiments, a system for testing, analyzing, refining, andexecuting a direct marketing campaign is provided. The system caninclude a consumer data warehouse database storing consumer populationcredit-related data including at least one generic attribute. The systemcan further include a client view including at least one proprietaryattribute. The system can further include a sample database of consumerpopulation credit-related data, including a database of core consumerdata and a database of client pre-calculated data. The database of coreconsumer data can include a portion of the consumer data warehousedatabase. The system can further include an other client data databasestoring information from past direct marketing campaigns, including atleast one response from a consumer to a past direct marketing campaign.The system can further include an extraction and data load moduleconfigured to load the at least one generic attribute into the databaseof core consumer data and the at least one proprietary attribute intothe database of client pre-calculated data.

In some embodiments, a method for building a sample database isprovided. The method can include receiving and storing in a firstdatabase a selection of proprietary attributes from a client. The methodcan further include receiving and storing in a second database consumerinformation from past direct marketing campaigns. The method can furtherinclude sampling a third database of depersonalized consumer creditinformation, including records with information about a plurality ofconsumers. The method can further include extracting and loading asubset of depersonalized credit information from the third database intoa fourth database, including copying a subset of the consumer creditinformation in the third database to the fourth database. The method canfurther include extracting and loading the first database into thefourth database including copying the proprietary attributes from thefirst database to the fourth database. The method can further includeassociating the second database with the fourth database.

In some embodiments, a method for testing, analyzing, refining, andexecuting a direct marketing campaign is provided. The method caninclude storing consumer population credit-related data, including atleast one generic attribute in a consumer data warehouse database. Themethod can further include generating a sample database including aportion of the consumer population credit-related data in the consumerdata warehouse database. The method can further include receiving afirst request from a client to access the sample database to run one ormore tests of prospect selection criteria using the sample database. Themethod can further include receiving a second request including actualselection criteria from a client to execute a direct marketing campaign.The method can further include in response to receiving the secondrequest, accessing the consumer data warehouse database and segmenting aconsumer population based on the actual selection criteria.

The disclosure provided in the following pages describe examples of someembodiments of the invention. The designs, figures, and description arenon-limiting examples of some embodiments of the invention. Otherembodiments of the campaign planning environment may or may not includethe features disclosed herein. Moreover, disclosed advantages andbenefits may apply to only some embodiments of the invention, and shouldnot be used to limit the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A general architecture that implements various features of specificembodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to thedrawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided toillustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope ofthe invention. Throughout the drawings, reference numbers are re-used toindicate correspondence between referenced elements. In addition, thefirst digit of each reference number indicates the figure in which theelement first appears.

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a system for planning andexecuting a direct marketing campaign, including typical clientcomponents for accessing the system.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram that shows how FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B₃ canbe combined to form a single high level block diagram depicting oneembodiment of a system for planning and executing a direct marketingcampaign.

FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B₃ are high level block diagrams depictingembodiments of the campaign planning and executing system 100 thatimproves campaign testing and refining capabilities.

FIG. 2 depicts one embodiment of a partitioning solution that allows aplurality of individual clients to access the same sample database,without corrupting or having access to one another's data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram that depicts one embodiment of a selection of datafrom the credit database to be included in the “snapshot” sample.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart depicting one embodiment of a process forgenerating and maintaining a sample database environment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart that depicts one embodiment of a process 500 forusing the sample database environment to assist a client 120 to test,analyze, refine, and execute a marketing campaign.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to theaccompanying figures, wherein like numerals refer to like elementsthroughout. The terminology used in the description presented herein isnot intended to be interpreted in any limited or restrictive manner,simply because it is being utilized in conjunction with a detaileddescription of certain specific embodiments of the invention.Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may include several novelfeatures, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirableattributes or which is essential to practicing the invention hereindescribed.

I. Overview

The present disclosure relates to test environment for planningstrategies for direct marketing campaigns. As used herein, a “strategy”refers to a set of selection criteria, also known as selection rulesthat may be used to form a query for execution on a database of recordsregarding prospective recipients of a direct marketing offer. Thestrategy may thus identify one or more attributes associated with therecords that may be combined, often in a very complex query, to identifya desired subset of the records in the database.

One example of a database that may be suitable for identifyingprospective recipients of a direct marketing offer can be one or moredatabases of consumer information available from a credit bureau. Suchcredit bureau databases may comprise both credit-related and non-creditrelated data, such as demographic data, data from public records, andthe like. In addition to credit bureaus, other business entities mayprovide access to suitable databases of consumer information, that maycomprise credit-related and/or non-credit related data.

One example of a direct marketing campaign offer is a firm offer ofcredit, for which campaign offer recipients may be identified using bothcredit-related and non-credit related data about consumers. Anotherexample of a direct marketing campaign offer is an offer that is not afirm offer of credit, known as an “Invitation to Apply” (ITA) offer,which may be based on non-credit-related data alone. The systems andmethods described herein are contemplated as also being useful foridentifying recipients of other types of direct marketing offers thatmay be based on any of a variety of other types of data. Although, forease of description, the systems and methods disclosed herein arefrequently described as being performed on a credit bureau database andas providing a database environment in which clients can usecredit-related data for planning direct marketing campaigns, it is to beunderstood that, in various embodiments, the campaigns may be plannedusing either credit-related data, non-credit-related data, or both.Furthermore, the environment may be provided by a credit bureau or otherentity providing access to consumer data.

Previous test environments for planning direct marketing campaigns usingcredit bureau data frequently included a full custom-built copy, knownas a “full snapshot” or “100% snapshot,” of the credit database fromwhich consumer names for the final direct marketing campaign areselected. Tasks performed in the 100% snapshot may include some or allof: analysis and campaign development, campaign set-up, audit andreporting on campaign logic, receiving client approval to proceed, andexecution of the full direct marketing campaign. Since a credit bureaudatabase may include records for hundreds of millions of consumers,building such a full copy of the database typically involves asignificant lag time between initiation of the database snapshotbuilding process and availability of the snapshot of use in testing.Thus, freshness of the data used may be compromised by the time testingbegins. This lack of data freshness may be exacerbated when the data inthe source database is itself lacking in freshness, due, for example, toinfrequent updates.

The lack of data freshness is yet further exacerbated when a directmarketing campaign developer, desiring to test and refine campaignstrategies, must submit every new refinement of the campaign selectioncriteria to a credit bureau representative for running on the creditbureau database and must wait for a credit bureau representative toreport on the results. The interjection of a third party into a campaigndeveloper's refinement of a campaign strategy frequently makes theprocess inordinately cumbersome and time-consuming.

Furthermore, lenders frequently desire to include proprietary data oftheir own and proprietary attribute definitions for use with the creditbureau data in campaign testing, refining, and finally, execution. Thedesire to include multiple data sources, including proprietary data forthose who can afford the investment, frequently leads to building aproprietary test database for the lender's private use. A proprietarydatabase or snapshot is not only an extremely expensive andtime-consuming proposition, both to build initially and to update, butalso typically yields a database with data that is out-of-date by thetime the database is used for testing and finally executing the campaignstrategy.

On the other hand, using a snapshot of a database that is updated veryfrequently and that cannot be used and stored for re-use during thedevelopment of a campaign lessens a campaign developer's confidence thatdifferences in campaign test results obtained from various test runs arethe result of changes in the campaign's selection strategies and are notsimply, in part or in total, the result of changes between the varioussnapshots.

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for providing a directmarketing campaign planning environment, such as for marketing campaignsdirected to consumers identified using a credit-related database system.Frequently, business entities carrying out a direct marketing campaignfirst identify a desired set of recipients for one or more marketingoffers associated with the campaign, and contact the identifiedrecipients, such as via mail, telephone, email, or the like, with themarketing offer.

For purposes of the present disclosure, a “testing” phase is describedin which the business entities may repeatedly test and refine a set ofselection criteria for identifying consumers expected to be goodprospects for a marketing campaign using a sample database that is acopy of a portion of a large database of consumer records. Once asatisfactory set of selection criteria is obtained, an “execution” phaseincludes using the selection criteria on the large database of consumerrecords to identify consumers to be recipients of the direct marketingoffer. In some embodiments, contact information for the identifiedconsumers may also be provided. In some embodiments, execution mayfurther comprise using the contact information to contact the identifiedconsumers with the direct marketing offer, and may further includetracking consumer response to the direct marketing campaign.

II. Architecture

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a system for planning andexecuting a direct marketing campaign. As depicted in FIG. 1A, thesystem 100 may comprise a consumer data warehouse 110, which iscommunication with a credit-related database 102, and a sample database140. In preferred embodiments, the system 100 comprises one or moreserver systems (typically comprising multiple physicalcomputers/machines) and associated content that are accessible to aplurality of client computing devices 101 via a network 103. The system100 can be implemented using physical computer servers that aregeographically co-located or that are geographically remote from oneanother. The system 100 may in some embodiments, include content thatspans one or multiple internet domains.

The credit-related database 102 may be configured to receive, update,and store vast amounts of data. For example, in one embodiment, a creditbureau uses the credit-related database 102 for storing data receivedfrom a variety of sources for approximately three hundred millionconsumers. Such data may include, for example, demographic information,credit-related information, and information available from publicrecords. Some or all of the data may be used, among other purposes, tocalculate credit scores for the consumers.

The consumer data warehouse 110 may be configured to store a copy ornear-copy of the data in the credit-related database 102. In variousembodiments, a copy of data from the credit-related database 102 isperiodically extracted and reconfigured for updating the consumer datawarehouse 110. For example, data from the credit-related database 102may be processed by a set of ETL (Extract, Transform Load) serversbefore being transmitted to the consumer data warehouse 110.

After the data has been transformed by the ETL servers, the data may beloaded to the consumer data warehouse 110, such as by way of a highspeed server interconnect switch that handles incoming and outgoingcommunications with the consumer data warehouse 110. As one example, thehigh speed interconnect switch may be an IBM SP2 switch. In otherembodiments, Gig Ethernet, Infiniband, and other high speedinterconnects may be used.

Embodiments of an architecture for the consumer data warehouse 110 maybe implemented using a Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) hardwareinfrastructure. In one embodiment, IBM AIX pSeries servers (8-way p655)may act as the MPP building blocks of the consumer data warehouse 110.In other embodiments, other types of servers may act as the MPP buildingblocks of the system, for example, Linux servers, other types of UNIXservers, and/or Windows Servers. A similar architecture could also beimplemented using Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) servers, such as IBMP690 32-way server or HP Superdome servers.

In preferred embodiments, a relational database management system(RDBMS), such as a DB2 EEE8.1 system, manages the data in the consumerdata warehouse 110.

The system 100 can also include a sample database 140 that stores atemporary copy of a portion of the data in the consumer data warehouse110, as will be described in greater detail below. The sample database140 can serve as an environment in which one or more clients may test,refine, and/or validate a proposed marketing campaign before executingthe campaign on the full consumer data warehouse 110.

FIG. 1A further illustrates typical client components for accessing thesystem, in accordance with some embodiments of the invention. Asdepicted in this drawing, one or more clients can use a general purposecomputer or computing device 101 with access to a network 103 to accessthe system 100.

For example, one or more of the computing devices 101 may be a personalcomputer that is IBM, Macintosh, or Linux/Unix compatible. In oneembodiment, the client computing device 101 includes a centralprocessing unit (CPU), which may include a conventional microprocessor.The computing device 101 further includes a memory, such as randomaccess memory (RAM) for temporary storage of information and a read onlymemory (ROM) for permanent storage of information, and a mass storagedevice, such as a hard drive, diskette, or optical media storage device.

The client computing device 101 may include one or more commonlyavailable input/output (I/O) devices and interfaces, such as a keyboard,mouse, touchpad, and printer. In one embodiment, the I/O devices andinterfaces include one or more display device, such as a monitor, thatallows the visual presentation of data to a user. More particularly, adisplay device provides for the presentation of GUIs, applicationsoftware data, and multimedia presentations, for example. The clientcomputing device 101 may also include one or more multimedia devices,such as speakers, video cards, graphics accelerators, and microphones,for example.

The network 103 may comprise one or more of a LAN, WAN, or the Internet,for example, via a wired, wireless, or combination of wired andwireless, communication link that may be configured to be secured orunsecured.

As further illustrated in FIG. 1A, the computer 101 of the client canrun a campaign management tool 125 and business intelligence tool 126.The campaign management tool 125 and business intelligence tool 126 canbe configured to perform research and analysis functions associated withtesting and refining the proposed direct marketing campaign.

Although the credit-related database 102 and the client computingdevices 101 have been depicted in FIG. 1A as being external to thesystem 100, in other embodiments, one or more of the credit-relateddatabase 102 and/or the client computing devices 101 may be provided aspart of the system 100, in which cases, communications may take placeusing one or more internal communications systems. Additionally oralternatively, rather than being a copy of the credit-related database102, the consumer data warehouse 110 may receive update data, including,but not limited to demographic information, credit-related information,and/or information available from public records, directly from othersources.

In some embodiments, clients 120 may access the consumer data warehouse110 and/or may run campaigns directly rather than via the projectmanager 130.

FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B₃ are high level block diagrams depictingembodiments of a campaign testing and executing system 100 that improvecampaign testing and refining capabilities. FIG. 1B shows how FIGS. 1B₁, 1B₂, and 1B₃ can be combined to form a single high level blockdiagram depicting one embodiment of the campaign testing and executingsystem 100. The campaign testing and executing system 100 may be used,at least in part, by lenders, other providers of credit services orother business entities, and/or marketers working on their behalf(referred to, for purposes of this disclosure, as “clients” 120) whowish to use data available from one or more credit bureaus or otherprovider of consumer data to help identify consumers who may beinterested in the services of the clients.

In various embodiments, the campaign testing and executing system 100may be implemented using a variety of computer hardware and softwareresources. For example, computer servers, such as web servers, databaseservers, campaign management tool servers, and business intelligencetool servers, as well as direct access storage device (DASD) capacityaccessible by one or more of the above-described types of servers areused in various embodiments. Furthermore, associated software, such ascluster multi-processing software, campaign management software,business intelligence software, network communications software, anddatabase management software (such as DB2, Oracle, or Sybase, forexample) can also be used.

In the embodiments depicted in FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B₃, a consumer datawarehouse 110 includes data about millions of consumers. In particular,data in the consumer data warehouse 110 may be a copy or near-copy ofdata from the database of credit-related data 102, which is used forcalculating consumer credit ratings, among other uses, and which isupdated daily or more frequently. The data in the consumer datawarehouse 110 may be organized so as to make batch processing of thedata more expedient and may be updated from the database ofcredit-related data 102 that is used for calculating consumer creditratings on a regular, preferably frequent, basis, so that data in theconsumer data warehouse 110 includes up-to-date changes in theconsumers' records. In a preferred embodiment, the consumer datawarehouse 110 is updated twice weekly.

In the consumer data warehouse 110, the data may be organized generallyas records of data for each consumer. Each record may be dividedconceptually into attributes associated with each consumer. Examples ofdemographic, credit, or custom attributes that may be useful to clients120 wishing to identify potential customers may include, but are notlimited to: number of credit cards held by the consumer, total availablecredit, total current balance, number of late payments within the lastyear, number of late payments within the last three years, notradelines, and the like. In addition, some attributed may be derivedfrom other attributes, such as but not limited to derived attributesthat are aggregations of other attributes or that are calculated fromother attributes. In many embodiments, the consumer data warehouse 110may include hundreds of attributes for each consumer. Some attributes,and especially attributes useful to a wide variety of clients using thesystem 100, may be pre-calculated for the consumer records and may begenerally available to the clients as a generic attribute view 111 fromthe consumer data warehouse 110. Clients 120 may also wish to definecustom attributes for their own use to help identify consumers ofinterest. Instructions for calculating these proprietary attributes maybe input to the consumer data warehouse 110 by a custom attribute coder160 on behalf of individual clients 120 for use by the individualclients. The custom attributes may be stored in a plurality of clientviews 112, which allow each client 120 to access only their ownproprietary attributes.

In some embodiments, in addition to the attributes in views 111, 112,clients may provide other data 113 that may be used together with thedata in the consumer data warehouse 110 to identify potentially goodprospects for a direct marketing campaign. For example, clients 120 maywish to include historical information identifying consumers who havepreviously been contacted in one or more direct marketing campaigns,response history information about consumers who have been contacted,information identifying consumers who have requested not to becontacted, and/or the like. Other non-campaign related data may also beincluded with the other data 113.

Generally, when a client 120 wishes to run a direct marketing campaign,a campaign flowchart 121 is generated to describe a plan for identifyingdesired consumers from the records in the consumer data warehouse 110.The campaign flowchart 121 is typically a complex plan for using a largenumber of attributes from the generic attribute view 111 and the clientview 112, along with other client data 113, to categorize the consumersand to select consumers whose attributes place them in one or moredesired categories. The campaign flowchart 121 is provided to a projectmanager 130 who, among other tasks, accepts the campaign flowchart 121for extracting the desired information, often in the form of consumernames and contact information, from the consumer data warehouse 110.

In order to help the client 120 design a campaign flowchart 121 thatsuccessfully identifies consumers appropriate for a given directmarketing campaign, the campaign testing and executing system 100advantageously includes a sample database 140 that serves as atemporarily available environment in which a client may test, refine,and validate a proposed campaign flowchart 121. The sample database 140preferably includes data from a random or semi-random sampling of therecords in the consumer data warehouse 110 so that results obtained fromtest campaigns run on the sample database 140 will be statisticallymeaningful indicators of the results that would be obtained using thefull consumer data warehouse 110. It is desirable for the sampledatabase 140 to include a sufficiently large sampling of the consumerdata warehouse 110 records to provide a statistically meaningful samplewhile being sufficiently small to allow for quick building of thedatabase 140 and quick execution of test campaigns. Preferably, thesample database 140 includes fewer records than the consumer datawarehouse 110. In one embodiment, a sample size of 10% of the fullconsumer data warehouse 110 is preferred. That is, the sample databaseincludes at least a portion of the data from 10% of the consumer recordsin the full consumer data warehouse 110. In other embodiments, otherpreferred sizes may be used, including 1% to 70%, or 5% to 25% of therecords in the credit-related database 102. Although embodiments of thesystems and methods are described herein with reference to a 10% sampledatabase 140, embodiments of the systems and methods are alsocontemplated as being used with a sample database 140 that represent adifferent portion of the full consumer data warehouse 110.

As depicted in FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B₃, once a sample (for example, 10%of the data warehouse records) is selected, generic attributes from thegeneric view 111 and proprietary attributes in the client view 112 thatare associated with consumers in the sample go through an extraction anddata load process executed by a data load module 150 to build the sampledatabase 140. Generic attributes may be stored in a repository ofconsumer core data 141 and proprietary attributes from the client view112 may be stored in a repository of client pre-calculated data 142. Invarious embodiments, certain portions of the selected records theconsumer data warehouse 110 may be omitted from records in the sampledatabase 140. For example, consumer name and contact information may bedeleted from the records to be used for campaign testing in order tocomply with various governmental regulations regarding proper use ofconsumer credit information. Instead, anonymous identifier numbers andgeneral location information may be used to identify the individualrecords and to allow a geographically representative sample to beselected. As will be familiar to a practitioner of skill in the art,other methods of anonymizing consumer records while retaining theirusefulness for campaign development may also be used.

As depicted in FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B₃, a copy of some or all of theother client data 113 may be stored in a repository of other client data143 for use with the sample database 140.

In one embodiment, to test, analyze, and refine a proposed campaign, theclient 120 uses a campaign management tool 125 and/or a businessintelligence tool 126 to access a sample client view 144 that includesdata from the repository of sampled consumer core data 141, theassociated repository of client pre-calculated data 142, and therepository of other client data 143. The campaign management tool 125and the business intelligence tool 126 are software applications thatmay be accessed and run using a personal computer (PC) or any of avariety of other commonly available computing devices in order to sendqueries to the sample database 140, to generate reports based at leastin part on information obtained from the sample database 140, and toperform other research and analysis functions associated with testingand refining the proposed direct marketing campaign. In preferredembodiments, the client 120 may access the campaign testing andexecuting system 100 by way of the Internet or other communicationsnetwork 103.

In preferred embodiments, the campaign management tool 125, or anotheraspect of the campaign testing and executing system 100, provides theclient 120 with a “layman, user-friendly” data dictionary that describeselements available within the sample database 140. The client 120 ispreferably also provided with a “look-up” capability for variousavailable categories of attributes, for example mortgage-relatedattributes, credit-rating related attributes, or the like. In someembodiments, the client 120 may additionally or alternatively create anduse proprietary attributes for use in the direct marketing campaign.

Preferably, the campaign management tool 125 allows the client 120 to beable to conduct high-level campaign development functions, such assegmentation of the consumer population, selection of one or more suchsegments, and/or suppression of one or more segments or one or moreindividual consumers from the selection results.

Furthermore, the campaign management tool 125 preferably provides theclient 120 with a capability to construct queries for testing andexecuting the campaign through a graphic user interface (GUI). Thecampaign query interface allows for basic and advanced logic to bedefined and used to construct queries in one or more database querylanguages, such as Standard Query Language (SQL). In a preferredembodiment, the query interface provides the client 120 with acapability to create SQL queries directly, to view either or both of SQLqueries created directly by the user and/or queries generated via thequery builder interface, and to edit either or both of SQL queriescreated directly by the user and/or queries generated via the querybuilder interface.

The query interface of the campaign management tool 125 preferablyallows the client 120 to name query definitions, to save querydefinitions, to reuse query definitions. Additionally, in a preferredembodiment, the query interface provides the client 120 with an abilityto record and modify campaign selection rules for future use. In someembodiments, the query interface allows the client 120 to share querydefinitions with one or more authorized users.

Furthermore, in a preferred embodiment, the query interface allows theclient 120 to test a query, to view query results, and to print thequery results. For each query result, the query interface may have thecapability to provide a sample of the underlying data.

In one embodiment, the campaign management tool 125 includes a queryinterface that allows the client 120 to select individuals from themarketing database based upon individual or household criteria. Thequery interface allows the client 120 to add data sources for thepurpose of selection for individual campaigns. The query interfacefurther provides the client 120 with an ability to select records basedon a “times mailed” calculation derived from the historical campaignresponse data. The query interface may provide the capability toidentify customer segments. The query interface may additionally oralternatively provide the client 120 with a capability to utilizeindependent queries for each segment and segmentation trees to split thecustomer universe into subgroups.

In some embodiments, the same campaign management tool 125 and thebusiness intelligence tool 126 software applications that are used forrunning direct marketing campaigns on the full consumer data warehouse110 (the 100% environment) may also provide all functionality needed forallowing clients 120 to directly create and test campaigns on the sampledatabase 140 (10% environment). In some embodiments, separate queryinterfaces for campaign testing and campaign execution may be provided.In some embodiments, the campaign management tool 125 and the businessintelligence tool 126 software applications may provide some, but notall, preferred functionality for providing the systems and methodsdisclosed herein, in which case supplemental software may be added to orused in conjunction with the campaign management tool 125 and/or thebusiness intelligence tool 126 software to provide the missingfunctionality.

The client 120 may run and re-run the test campaign on the sampledatabase 40 as desired, performing champion/challenger tests, forexample, and observing the effects of modifications on the campaignresults. In various embodiments, the data in the sample database 140remains temporarily static until the sample database 140 is re-built,using a new randomly selected sampling of the credit-related database102 records which may take place at regular intervals, such as forexample, once a week. Thus, the client 120 can have confidence that thevarious campaign test runs being run during a given week are being runon the same data. In other embodiments, the data in the sample database140 may be updated according to another schedule, such daily, monthly,upon demand by one or more clients, at random intervals, or the like.

In various embodiments, the client 120 can run various types of reportsusing the campaign management tool 125 and/or the business intelligencetool 126 software in order to aid in analysis of the data and testresults. For example, in one embodiment, the client 120 may run one ormore campaign analysis reports that allow the client 120 to predictresponse to the direct marketing campaign within a segment or group ofsegments of the targeted population. The client 120 may also use reportsto refine future marketing strategies. In some embodiments, the client120 may specify a preferred output layout for the reports.

In some embodiments, the campaign management tool 125 and the businessintelligence tool 126 software do not communicate directly with oneanother and do not directly share metadata or queries, although theclient 120 may manually transfer queries, for example, from one to theother. In other embodiments, the campaign management tool 125 and thebusiness intelligence tool 126 software may be configured to have accessto shared metadata and queries.

Once the client 120 has had an opportunity to test and/or refine thecampaign strategy and is satisfied with the campaign strategy, theclient may provide the campaign flowchart 121, which reflects thedesired campaign strategy, to the project manager 130 for running on thefull data warehouse 110 environment as currently updated.

As was described above, in preferred embodiments, the consumer datawarehouse 110 is updated twice weekly or at another advantageouslyfrequent interval to insure “freshness” of the data. Thus, although thecampaign testing may, in some embodiments, have been run on data thatwas about ten days old, the actual campaign may be run on data that isthree days old or newer. In some embodiments, once the client 120submits the desired campaign strategy in the form of a campaignflowchart 121 to the project manager 130, either directly or via anintermediary, the campaign may be run on the full consumer datawarehouse 110 and results returned to the client 120 within as little asthree business days or less. In other embodiments, results may bereturned to the client 120 within another advantageously short period oftime.

In preferred embodiments, the campaign management tool 125 and/or thebusiness intelligence tool 126 may provide a variety of reportingservices to the client 120. For example, the campaign management tool125 may also provide the client 120 with data about consumer responsesreceived in connection with one or more executed direct marketingcampaigns. In other embodiments, the client 120 may receive consumerresponse reports from another source. In one embodiment, a responseanalysis report may provide an analysis of responses received from adirect marketing campaign executed through the system 100. The responseanalysis report may summarize results over periods of time with shortercomparison periods in the immediate weeks after a campaign is executedto longer time frames after the campaign has completed. The responseanalysis report may provide flexibility to perform analysis of variouslevels and/or categories of summarization, which may include, but arenot limited to: customer segments, product line, product campaign,promotion, offer, collateral, media, and/or vendor.

In some embodiments, a client data maintenance service 165 provides theclient 120 with an ability to store campaign-related data related toclient campaigns. For example, the client data maintenance service 165may make campaign data accessible for further campaign developmentpurposes, for analysis purposes, and/or in order toupdate/delete/archive campaign data for client campaigns. The clientdata maintenance service 165 may provide the ability to receive andstore campaign-related data for direct marketing campaigns that may becommon to most or all of a client's campaigns and thus may be useful forfuture campaigns. The client data maintenance service 165 may collectdata of individual promotions in order to derive a “times contacted”calculation for use in future campaign development.

In some embodiments, the client data maintenance service 165 may furtherrecord updates to identifying information, such as name, address, and/ortelephone information received during a direct marketing campaign. Theclient data maintenance service 165 may record mail disposition updatesfor individual consumer records, such as whether a direct mailingadvertisement was mailed or not mailed, along with associatedexplanatory reason codes. The client data maintenance service 165 mayrecord telephone contact disposition updates for individual consumerrecords, such as whether a direct mailing advertisement call was made ornot made, along with associated explanatory reason codes. In otherembodiments, other types of data may additionally or alternatively bemaintained on behalf of the client 120, by the client data maintenanceservice 165 and/or as part of the campaign management 125 or businessintelligence tool 126 services.

In some embodiments the system 100 may be used for planning a variety oftypes of campaigns, including, for example, both firm offers of creditand ITA offers. In some embodiments, the system 100 may provide accessfor clients 120 to two or more sample databases 140, including at leastone sample database that includes only non-credit related data. Thistype of non-credit related sample database may be used, for example, forplanning campaigns where the use of consumer credit data is notpermitted. In other embodiments, the sample database 140 may beconfigured to include a mix of credit and non-credit information, suchthat the system 100 may provide clients 120 with access to both thecredit and the non-credit information or to only the non-creditinformation in the sample database 140.

The methods and processes described above and throughout the presentdisclosure may be embodied in, and fully automated via, software codemodules executed by one or more general purpose computers/processors.The code modules may be stored in any type of computer-readable mediumor other computer storage device. Some or all of the methods mayalternatively be embodied in specialized computer hardware.

FIG. 2 depicts one embodiment of a partitioning solution that allows aplurality of individual clients 120′, 120″, 120′″, 120″″ to access thesame sample database 140, without corrupting or having access to oneanother's proprietary data. As was depicted in FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B₃,the sample database 140 includes a repository of core consumer data 141,available to all clients, which includes data associated with a randomlyselected portion, such as 10%, of the records in the full consumer datawarehouse 110. In a preferred embodiment, once a week, a new 10% sampleof the full consumer data warehouse 110 is randomly selected, extractedfrom the consumer data warehouse 110, cleansed of undesirable orunnecessary attributes, such as name, address, other contactinformation, and the like, and is loaded into the repository of coreconsumer data 141. In addition, pre-calculated attributes associatedwith the generic attribute view 111 for the selected portion of theconsumer records can be calculated and loaded in to the repository ofcore consumer data 141 that is commonly available to clients using thesample database 140.

Furthermore, the system 100 may provide each client 120 accessing thesample database 140 with additional proprietary data owned by theclient. The proprietary data may include custom attributes, as definedin the client view 112 of the consumer data warehouse 110 and/or may becustom attributes defined for the current campaign. The customattributes can be calculated for the randomly selected portion of theconsumer records and are loaded in the repository of clientpre-calculated data 142 in the sample database 140. In addition, otherclient data 143, proprietary to each client, may be made available usefor by the associated client. For example, client-specific campaignhistory data and/or client-specific response history data may beprovided to clients 120 using the sample database 140. This testenvironment which persists for one week, or for another desired span oftime, provides a stable environment that is very helpful to campaigndevelopers.

As depicted in FIG. 2, the generic data available to all clients and theproprietary data exclusive to individual clients 120′, 120″, 120′″,120″″ are depicted as Schema 1, Schema 2, Schema 3, and Schema 4. Eachschema may, in various embodiments, include the client pre-calculateddata 142 for the 10% or other sized sample and/or the other client data143 that were described with reference to FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B3 andmay be used with the data in the repository of core customer data 141.

FIG. 2 shows that each schema is accessible only to its respectiveclient 120, and is shielded from access or use by other clients by asystem of partition. The partition plan depicted in FIG. 2 allows aplurality of clients 120 to access the sample database 140simultaneously or nearly simultaneously for testing and refining theirrespective campaign strategies. In one embodiment, the campaign testingand executing system 100 allows for from one up to one hundred clients120 to access the same sample database 140, including the shared coreconsumer data 141 and each client's 120 proprietary data,simultaneously. Clients may pose up to one hundred queries per month andmay extract from less than one up to over thirty million names permonth. In other embodiments, the system 100 may accommodate more thanone hundred clients 120 and/or may allow the clients 120 to pose up toanother advantageous number of queries and/or extracted names per giventime period. In still further embodiments, the system 100 may providemultiple sample databases 140 for use by one or more clients 120.

Starting at the bottom of FIG. 2, a plurality of clients 120′, 120″,120′″, 120″″ access the business intelligence 126 and/or campaignmanagement 125 tools for testing and refining their respective campaignstrategies. A firewall 210 allows access to the system for clients 120with approved campaign credentials and protects computers used by theindividual clients from improper access by others.

The clients 120′, 120″, 120′″, 120″″ access the campaign web applicationserver 220 and are given access to their respective partitions. In someembodiments, the clients 120′, 120″, 120′″, 120″″ can connect using aVirtual Private Network (VPN) and/or can use vendor specific usercredentials. In one embodiment, access to the campaign server 240 iscontrolled by an Access Control List (ACL) 230, such as an ACL thatmakes use of a password or other identifier to correctly authenticate aclient 20 wishing to access the system 100, as will be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art in light of the present disclosure. Thecampaign server 240 accesses the data stored in the sample databaseserver 140 in order to carry out the queries, tests, report generation,and the like that may be requested by the individual clients 120. Onceagain, communications between the sample database server 140 and thecampaign server 240 is controlled by means of an ACL 250. In someembodiments, the sample database server 140 can be implemented using arelational database, such as IBM DB2, Sybase, Oracle, CodeBase andMicrosoft® SQL Server as well as other types of databases such as, forexample, a flat file database, an entity-relationship database, andobject-oriented database, and/or a record-based database.

Thus, clients gain the benefits typically associated with a custom testand execution database system that includes their own data as well asvery up-to-date generic consumer data without a substantial delay fordatabase build time and without the very costly up-front financialinvestment that are typically associated with proprietary databases.

Furthermore, as was described with reference to FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, and 1B3above, in some embodiments, in addition to having access to differentproprietary data 142, 143, different clients may also be provided withaccess to different portions of the core consumer data 141 in the sampledatabase 140. For example, one or more clients 120 planning a first typeof campaign may be allowed access to all of the data in the coreconsumer data 141, while clients 120 planning a second type of campaignmay be allowed access to a portion of the data in the core consumer data141. Furthermore, in some embodiments, a given client 120 may be allowedaccess to all of the data in the core consumer data 141 for a first typeof campaign, while the same client 120 may, at the same time, be allowedaccess to only a portion of the data in the core consumer data 141 foruse in planning a second type of campaign. In one embodiment, accesscontrol to the data in the core consumer data 141 of the sample database140 is implemented, at least in part, using the various schemas for thevarious clients 120, as depicted in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 is a diagram that depicts one embodiment of a selection of datafrom the credit database to be included in the “snapshot” sampledatabase 140. In the embodiment shown, the following types of data areincluded: consumer credit information 310, consumer non-creditinformation 320, client custom data 330, client contact history data340, and client response data 350. In some embodiments, the client 20uses the campaign management software tool 125 for campaign developmentand/or the business intelligence tool 126 for analysis and reporting.The consumer credit information 310 and the consumer non-creditinformation 320 both come as part of the 10% sample data load from thegeneric attributes 111 in the consumer data warehouse 110. Together,they make up the consumer core data 141 depicted in FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂, 1B₃and FIG. 2. In this embodiment, each record in the consumer creditinformation 310 and the consumer non-credit information 320 includes ahousehold identifier (HSN), a personal identifier (PIN), and a selectionof consumer attributes. The client custom data 330 is stored in therepository of proprietary attributes 142 depicted in FIGS. 1B ₁, 1B₂,and 1B₃. In this embodiment, each record in the client custom data 330includes a household identifier (HSN), a personal identifier (PIN), anda selection of proprietary consumer attributes. In various embodiments,client custom information may not include consumer name, street addressor encrypted PIN information, and does include, for each consumer, anelement, such as zip code, that can be matched to data within the sampledatabase 141 and the consumer data warehouse 110. The client contacthistory data 340 and the client response data 350 may both come from thecopy of the other client data 143 in the sample database 140, whichincludes data about the full population of consumers. These data sourcesare used, for example, to filter campaign results based on past contacthistory and client response information. The past contact history andclient response information may indicate that if a given consumerappears in the list of campaign results, the consumer should be removedfrom list, for any of a variety of reasons. In some embodiments, some ofthe data from the client provided data 330, 340, 350 records may not beused for campaign development, in order to comply with federal and otherregulations that control the use of credit-related data for advertisingpurposes.

In one embodiment, a sample test environment is built that representsdata from a random 10% of a consumer credit database. The 10% testenvironment may be used for analysis, campaign development, campaignset-up, and for executing, auditing and reporting on logic proposed forthe campaign. The client 120 may review results of the above and mayapprove or decline to approve execution of the proposed campaignstrategy on the full and most recently updated version of the consumercredit database. If the client 120 declines approval, the client maychoose to modify and re-test the campaign strategy one or more timesuntil a desired campaign strategy is achieved. Thus, the full campaignexecutes the desired campaign strategy in the 100% environment of thefull consumer data warehouse 110.

Although the foregoing systems and methods have been described in termsof certain preferred embodiments, other embodiments will be apparent tothose of ordinary skill in the art from the disclosure herein. Forexample, in some embodiments, it may be desirable to add one or moredemographic tables to allow for development of Invitation to Apply (ITA)lists (non-credit data lists) for direct marketing campaigns by clients.In some embodiments, credit data from more than one credit bureau may beavailable for use in connection with the systems and methods describedherein.

Furthermore, although the systems and methods disclosed herein have beendescribed by way of embodiments in which the clients 120 are typicallycredit providers or marketers working to plan direct marketing campaignson their behalf, other embodiments, in which clients 120 are other typesof business entities who wish to make use information from the consumerdata warehouse 110, especially for planning direct marketing campaigns,are also envisioned.

IV. Operation

FIG. 4 is a flowchart depicting one embodiment of a process 400 forgenerating and maintaining a sample database environment 140. In block410, the system 100 performs a sampling of the records in thecredit-related database 102. In preferred embodiments, the samplingincludes data about a portion of the records in the credit-relateddatabase 102. The data may include some or all of the attributes andother data stored for the sampled records. In some preferredembodiments, the sampling includes data about a percentage or fractionof the records, such as 10% of the records, or another percentage of therecords in the range of 5%-25% of the records. In some embodiments, thesampling is a randomly selected portion of the records in thecredit-related database 102. In other embodiments, the sampling may beselected partially randomly, such as by segmenting the records in thecredit-related database 102 and by randomly selecting a portion of therecords from one or more of the segments.

In block 420, the system 100 calculates one or more generic attributesassociated with the sampled records. The generic attributes may becalculated from attribute definitions stored in one or more genericattribute views 111 and commonly available to clients 120 of the system100.

In block 430, the data load module 150 of the system 100 cleanses andloads data from the sampled records and the associated attributes. Forexample, undesirable or unnecessary attributes, such as name, address,other contact information, and the like may be removed from the samplebeing used for the sample database 140 in order to comply with rules andregulations that govern the use of credit-related data. Attributes mayalso be removed from the sample data in order to decrease the size ofthe sample database 140, so that building and running tests on thesample database 140 may be carried out efficiently and expeditiously.

The processes in blocks 440 and 450 are carried out individually foreach client 120 using the sample database 140. In block 440, the dataload module 150 of the system 100 cleanses and loads client-proprietaryattributes, such as those stored in the client's client view 112,deleting undesirable or unnecessary attributes. The data load module 150may also load other attributes defined by the client for use in thecurrent campaign strategy and/or may load other client data 143 providedby the client 120.

In block 450, the system 100 provides the client 120 with access to thesample database 140, including the generic 141 and the proprietary 142,143 data. As was described with reference to FIG. 2, the sample database140 is advantageously configured, using a system of one or morepartitions, firewalls, Access Control Lists (ACLs), and/or othersecurity measures to provide access to the same generic data 141 to aplurality of clients 120, simultaneously or near-simultaneously.Additionally, each client 120 may access and use their ownclient-proprietary data in conjunction with the generic data, withoutdanger that there client-proprietary data will unintentionally becomeavailable to other clients 120. This configuration provides for a shareddatabase 140 that economically and efficiently provides a sharedenvironment for campaign testing, while also providing the benefits of ausually much costlier custom testing environment that also for thesecure inclusion of proprietary attributes and other information in thecampaign strategy testing.

In block 460 the system 100 determines if a lifespan associated with thecurrent version of the sample database 140 is complete. As one example,in embodiments in which the sample database 120 is updated weekly, thelifespan is one week. If the lifespan associated with the currentversion of the sample database 140 is not yet complete, the system 100continues to provide the clients 120′, 120″, 120′″ with access to thesample database 140. If the lifespan associated with the current versionof the sample database 140 is complete, the process 400 returns to block410 where the system 100 creates a new version of the sample database140 to replace the previous version.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart that depicts one embodiment of a process 500 forusing the direct marketing campaign planning environment to assist aclient 120 to test, analyze, refine, and execute a marketing campaign,in accordance with some embodiments disclosed herein.

In block 505, the system 100 generates a sample database 140 testenvironment, as has been described with reference to FIG. 4 andelsewhere throughout the present disclosure.

In block 510, the system 100 accepts from the client 120 a proposed setof campaign selection rules to be tested for implementing a campaignstrategy. The goal of the campaign strategy may be to identify goodprospects for a direct marketing campaign. The goal of the testing maybe to identify selection rules, also known as prospect selectioncriteria, that can successfully identify from the sample database 140 adesired set of prospects for the campaign and that can thus be predictedto identify from the full database of consumer data 110 a desired set ofprospects for the campaign being planned. The selection rules may, insome embodiments, be formatted as a database query based on attributesassociated with records in the sample database 140 test environment. Insome embodiments, the campaign management tool 125 and the businessintelligence tool 126 can be configured to provide the client 120 with adata dictionary that describes various categories of attributesavailable for segmenting the consumer populations, such asmortgage-related attributes, credit-related attributes, variousproprietary attributes, and/or the like.

In block 520, the system 100 runs, on behalf of the client 120, a testcampaign on the sample database 140 using the proposed campaignselection rules. In some embodiments, the campaign management tool 125and the business intelligence tool 126 can be configured to access asample client view 144 of the sample database 140. The sample clientview 144 can be configured to include data from the repository of coreconsumer data 141, repository of client pre-calculated data 142, andrepository of other client data 143. In some embodiments, the campaignmanagement tool 125 and/or business intelligence tool 126 can beconfigured to provide the client 120 with a GUI that provides a queryinterface to run, name, construct, save, and/or reuse queries for thesample database 140. The queries can, in some embodiments, correspond tocampaign selection rules. In some embodiments, the query interface canbe configured to provide the client 120 with the ability to record andmodify campaign selection rules for future.

In block 530, the system 100 provides results of the test campaignperformed as described in block 520 to the client 120 for analysis. Thecampaign management tool 125 and/or business intelligence tool 126 canbe configured to allow the client 120 to conduct high-level campaigndevelopment functions, such as segmentation of the consumer population,selection of one or more segments, and/or suppression of one or moresegments or one or more individual consumers from the selection results,using individual, household, and/or other criteria. The campaignmanagement tool 125 and/or business intelligence tool 126 can also beconfigured to generate reports based at least in part on informationobtained from the sample database 140, and/or to perform other researchand analysis functions associated with testing and refining the proposeddirect marketing campaign. In some embodiments, the campaign managementtool 125 and/or business intelligence tool 126 can be configured togenerate reports predicting the response to the direct marketingcampaign within a segment or group of segments of the targetedpopulation.

In block 540, the system 100 receives from the client 120 an indicationas to whether it is satisfied with the campaign strategy. If the client120 is not satisfied, and if the lifespan of the sample database 140 isnot yet expired, then the process 500 returns to block 510, and thetesting and refining process can be repeated. The client 120 may modifyand update the campaign selection rules and re-run the test campaignusing new prospect selection criteria. In some embodiments, if theclient 120 is not satisfied, and if the lifespan of the sample database140 has expired, then the client 120 may continue testing the campaignselection rules once the sample database 140 has been rebuilt using anew randomly selected portion of the consumer data warehouse 110.

Alternatively, if, in block 540, the client 120 is satisfied with theresults of the current set of prospect selection criteria, the process500 moves to block 550 where the client 120 can provide a campaignflowchart 121. The campaign flowchart 121 can be configured to specifythe desired campaign strategy.

In block 555, the campaign flowchart 121 is used as a specification forrunning a direct marketing campaign on the full consumer data warehouse110 using the selection criteria identified during the testing on thesample database 140. In some embodiments, the project manager 130accepts the campaign flowchart 121 from the client 120 and causes thecampaign to be executed on the full consumer data warehouse 110. In someembodiments, the campaign with the tested selection criteria may be runon full consumer data warehouse 110 directly by the client 120 and/ormay be run on another database of consumer information

In block 560, the system 100 may optionally provide the client 120 withone or more consumer response reports associated with the directmarketing campaign. In some embodiments, the campaign management tool125 and/or business intelligence tool 126 can be configured to providethe client 120 with consumer response reports received in connectionwith one or more direct marketing campaigns actually carried out. Theconsumer response reports may provide an analysis of consumer responsesreceived from a direct marketing campaign. In some embodiments, thereports may summarize results over periods of time, including shortercomparison periods in the immediate weeks after a campaign is executed,and/or longer time frames, such as years after the campaign hascompleted.

The reports may provide flexibility to perform analysis of variouslevels and/or categories of summarization, which may include, but arenot limited to: customer segments, product line, product campaign,promotion, offer, collateral, media, and/or vendor. In some embodiments,a client data maintenance service 165 can also be configured to storecampaign-related data from executed campaigns that can, in someembodiments, be utilized for future campaigns. In some embodiments, theother client data 113 and/or repository of other client data 143 can beconfigured to store the campaign-related data for use in futurecampaigns.

IV. Various Embodiments of System and Method Implementations

In various embodiments, the systems and methods for providing a directmarketing campaign planning and execution environment may be embodied inpart or in whole in software that is running on one or more computingdevices. The functionality provided for in the components and modules ofthe computing device(s), including computing devices included in thesystem 100, may comprise one or more components and/or modules. Forexample, the computing device(s) may comprise multiple centralprocessing units (CPUs) and a mass storage device(s), such as may beimplemented in an array of servers. In one embodiment, the computingdevice comprises a server, a laptop computer, a cell phone, a personaldigital assistant, a smartphone or other handheld device, a kiosk, or anaudio player, for example.

In general, the word “module,” “application”, or “engine,” as usedherein, refers to logic embodied in hardware and/or firmware, and/or toa collection of software instructions, possibly having entry and exitpoints, written in a programming language, such as, for example, Java,Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Lua, C and/or C++. These may be compiled and linkedinto an executable program, installed in a dynamic link library, or maybe written in an interpreted programming language such as, for example,BASIC, Perl, or Python. It will be appreciated that modules,applications, and engines may be callable from others and/or fromthemselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected events orinterrupts. Instructions may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM.

It will be further appreciated that hardware may be comprised ofconnected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or may becomprised of programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays orprocessors. The modules, applications, and engines described herein arein certain applications preferably implemented as software modules, butmay be represented in hardware or firmware in other implementations.Generally, the modules, applications, and engines described herein referto logical modules that may be combined with other modules and/ordivided into sub-modules despite their physical organization or storage.

In some embodiments, the computing device(s) communicates with one ormore databases that store information, including credit data and/ornon-credit data. This database or databases may be implemented using arelational database, such as Sybase, Oracle, CodeBase and Microsoft® SQLServer as well as other types of databases such as, for example, a flatfile database, an entity-relationship database, and object-orienteddatabase, and/or a record-based database.

In one embodiment, the computing device is IBM, Macintosh, and/orLinux/Unix compatible. In another embodiment, the computing devicecomprises a server, a laptop computer, a cell phone, a Blackberry, apersonal digital assistant, a kiosk, or an audio player, for example. Inone embodiment, the computing device includes one or more CPUs, whichmay each include microprocessors. The computing device may furtherinclude one or more memory devices, such as random access memory (RAM)for temporary storage of information and read only memory (ROM) forpermanent storage of information, and one or more mass storage devices,such as hard drives, diskettes, or optical media storage devices.

In one embodiment, the modules of the computing are in communication viaa standards based bus system, such as bus systems using PeripheralComponent Interconnect (PCI), Microchannel, SCSI, Industrial StandardArchitecture (ISA) and Extended ISA (EISA) architectures, for example.In certain embodiments, components of the computing device communicatevia a network, such as a local area network that may be secured.

The computing is generally controlled and coordinated by operatingsystem software, such as the Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, SunOS, Solaris, PalmOS,Blackberry OS, or other compatible operating systems. In Macintoshsystems, the operating system may be any available operating system,such as MAC OS X. In other embodiments, the computing device may becontrolled by a proprietary operating system. Conventional operatingsystems control and schedule computer processes for execution, performmemory management, provide file system, networking, and I/O services,and provide a user interface, such as a graphical user interface (GUI),among other things.

The computing device may include one or more commonly availableinput/output (I/O) devices and interfaces, such as a keyboard, mouse,touchpad, microphone, and printer. Thus, in one embodiment the computingdevice may be controlled using the keyboard and mouse input devices,while in another embodiment the user may provide voice commands to thecomputing device via a microphone. In one embodiment, the I/O devicesand interfaces include one or more display device, such as a monitor,that allows the visual presentation of data to a user. Moreparticularly, a display device provides for the presentation of GUIs,application software data, and multimedia presentations, for example.The computing device may also include one or more multimedia devices,such as speakers, video cards, graphics accelerators, and microphones,for example.

In one embodiment, the I/O devices and interfaces provide acommunication interface to various external devices. For example, thecomputing device may be configured to communicate with one or morenetworks, such as any combination of one or more LANs, WANs, or theInternet, for example, via a wired, wireless, or combination of wiredand wireless, communication links. The network communicates with variouscomputing devices and/or other electronic devices via wired or wirelesscommunication links.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in terms of certainembodiments, other embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinaryskill in the art from the disclosure herein. Moreover, the describedembodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are notintended to limit the scope of the invention. Indeed, the novel methodsand systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other formswithout departing from the spirit thereof. Accordingly, othercombinations, omissions, substitutions and modifications will beapparent to the skilled artisan in view of the disclosure herein. Forpurposes of discussing the invention, certain aspects, advantages andnovel features of the invention have been described herein. Of course,it is to be understood that not necessarily all such aspects, advantagesor features will be embodied in any particular embodiment of theinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for allowing at least one client to planand execute a direct marketing campaign, the system comprising: acomputing system comprising one or more computing devices; anon-transient computer readable storage storing: a consumer creditdatabase of governmentally regulated consumer credit informationcomprising a plurality of records with information about a plurality ofconsumers; a test database comprising a copy of a subset of thegovernmentally regulated consumer credit information from the consumercredit database, the copy of the subset containing a substantiallysmaller subset of the plurality of records of the consumer creditdatabase; an extraction and data load module, stored in a non-transitorycomputer memory, configured to: load a set of generic attributes fromthe consumer credit database into the test database, load a set ofcustom attributes from the consumer credit database into the testdatabase; load consumer core data comprising extracted sample data intothe test database; and, depersonalize the consumer core data beforeloading the consumer core data into the test database by: removingidentification information of the plurality of consumers whose recordswere among the extracted sample data from the consumer core data,replacing the removed identification information with anonymousidentifier numbers, and removing contact information corresponding tothe plurality of consumers whose records were among the extracted sampledata from the consumer core data; the computing system programmed toimplement a client testing interface that allows a plurality of clientsto directly access the test database and to individually run one or moretests of prospect selection criteria using the test database in order toidentify a desired set of prospect selection criteria wherein the clienttesting interface is configured to: load a first set of proprietary dataof a first client of the plurality of clients into the test database,allow the first client to access the generic attributes, customattributes and depersonalized consumer core data in conjunction with theloaded first set of proprietary data, load a second set of proprietarydata of a second client of the plurality of clients into the testdatabase, allow a second client to access the generic attributes, customattributes and depersonalized consumer core data in conjunction with theloaded second set of proprietary data, only permit access to the firstset of proprietary data stored in the test database to the first client,and only permit access to the second set of proprietary data stored inthe test database to the second client and, second software instructionsthat when executed generate a campaign interface configured to extractconsumer information from the consumer credit database based, at leastin part, on the desired set of prospect selection criteria for use by atleast one of the plurality of clients in a direct marketing campaign. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the test database is updated lessfrequently than the consumer credit database.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the subset of the governmentally regulated consumer creditinformation from the consumer credit database comprises information fromten percent of the consumer records in the consumer credit database. 4.The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the consumer creditinformation from the database comprises credit-related and non-creditrelated information.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the proprietarydata includes at least one of: information from past direct marketingcampaigns, past contact history for a consumer, and past responseinformation for a consumer.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the clienttesting interface is further configured to allow the plurality ofclients to access the test database simultaneously.
 7. A method forplanning and executing a first direct marketing campaigns, the methodcomprising: accessing, by a computer system comprising one or morecomputing devices, a consumer credit database of governmentallyregulated consumer credit information comprising a plurality of recordswith information about a plurality of consumers; periodically copying,by the computer system, a substantially smaller subset of the pluralityof records with information about a plurality of consumers;depersonalizing, by the computer system, the copied plurality ofrecords, thereby creating depersonalized generic data; receiving, by thecomputer system, a first set of proprietary data owned by a of the firstclient planning and executing a first direct marketing campaign, thefirst set of proprietary data comprising first custom attributes definedby the first client for the first direct marketing campaign; receivingby the computer system, a second set of proprietary data owned by asecond client planning and executing a second direct marketing campaign,the second set of proprietary data comprising second custom attributesdefined by the second client for the second direct marketing campaign;creating, by the computer system, a test database by loading andcombining: the periodically copied and depersonalized generic data, thereceived first set of proprietary data, and the received second set ofproprietary data; generating, by the computer system, a testinginterface that: allows the first client to directly access the testdatabase and to run one or more first tests of prospect selectioncriteria using the test database in order to identify a first desiredset of prospect selection criteria wherein the client testing interfaceis configured to allow the first client to access the first set ofproprietary data, and block the second client from accessing the firstset proprietary data loaded in the test database, and allows the secondclient to directly access the test database and to run one or moresecond tests of prospect selection criteria using the test database inorder to identify a second desired set of prospect selection criteriawherein the client testing interface is configured to allow the secondclient to access the second set of proprietary data and block the firstclient from accessing the second set of proprietary data loaded in thetest database; and generate, by the computer system, a campaigninterface configured to extract consumer information from the consumercredit database based, at least in part, on the first desired set ofprospect selection criteria for use by the first client in the firstdirect marketing campaign or the second desired set of prospectselection criteria for use by the first client in the first directmarketing campaign.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the test databaseis updated less frequently than the consumer credit database.
 9. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the periodically copied substantially smallersubset of the plurality of records comprises information from tenpercent of the consumer database.
 10. The method of claim 7, wherein thefirst or second direct marketing campaign is for a firm offer of credit.11. The method of claim 7, wherein the first or second direct marketingcampaign is for an Invitation to Apply (ITA) offer.
 12. The method ofclaim 7, wherein the first set of proprietary data includes at least oneof: information from past direct marketing campaigns of the firstclient, past contact history with the first client for a consumer, andpast response information for a consumer with respect to the firstclient.
 13. A non-transitory, tangible, computer readable medium storingsoftware instructions that when executed cause a computer system to:access a consumer credit database of consumer credit informationcomprising a plurality of records with information about a plurality ofconsumers; copy a substantially smaller subset of the plurality ofrecords with information about a plurality of consumers; depersonalizethe copied plurality of records, thereby creating depersonalized genericdata; create a test database comprising the copied and depersonalizedgeneric data; receive first proprietary data of a first client that isplanning and executing a first marketing campaign; depersonalize thefirst proprietary data; load the received and depersonalized firstproprietary data into the test database, thereby combining thedepersonalized first proprietary data with the depersonalized genericdata; receive second proprietary data of a second client that isplanning and executing a second marketing campaign; depersonalize thesecond proprietary data; load the received and depersonalized secondproprietary data into the test database, thereby combining thedepersonalized second proprietary data with the depersonalized firstproprietary data and the depersonalized generic data; and generate atesting interface that allows the first client to directly access thetest database to identify a desired set of prospect selection criteriawherein the testing interface is configured to allow the first client toaccess the depersonalized first proprietary data loaded into the testdatabase and to block the first client from accessing the seconddepersonalized proprietary data loaded into the test database.
 14. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the test database isupdated less frequently than the consumer credit database.
 15. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the consumer creditdatabase is updated twice as frequently as the test database.
 16. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the test databasecomprises information from ten percent of the consumer database.
 17. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first direct marketingcampaign is for a firm offer of credit.
 18. The computer readable mediumof claim 13, wherein the first direct marketing campaign is for anInvitation to Apply (ITA) offer.
 19. The computer readable medium ofclaim 13, wherein the first proprietary data includes at least one of:information from past direct marketing campaigns of the first client,past contact history with the first client for a consumer, and pastresponse information for a consumer with respect to the first client.20. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the client testinginterface is further configured to allow the first and second client toaccess the test database simultaneously.